


Help Wanted

by FoxGlade



Series: Multiclassing For Beginners [1]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Sense8 (TV) Fusion, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-15
Updated: 2019-04-15
Packaged: 2020-01-13 02:27:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,612
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18459572
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FoxGlade/pseuds/FoxGlade
Summary: “Nott, I could really use your skills in stealth right now,” he mutters urgently. They're all still learning how to properly harness this strange new connection, but as the only two members of the Nein who have met in person, he and Nott have been making large strides in figuring it out. At the very least, summoning her should be easy, especially in a moment of peril.He speeds up his pace, and sure enough, at the next crossroads someone is waiting for him. Just not who he was expecting.“Are we in trouble?” Mollymauk asks, only looking mildly concerned as he idly twirls one of his swords. Caleb brushes past him and he easily falls into step.“I have picked up some strays,” Caleb says, equally mild. “And not the adorable fuzzy kind.”





	Help Wanted

**Author's Note:**

> so hey everyone, here's... something. 
> 
> if you haven't seen sense8, the only context you'll need is that it involves eight people from all around our world suddenly finding they have a telepathic link, meaning they can share skills (like languages), 'visit' one another (appear in the same place as one another), or 'possess' one another (briefly take over their bodies to use their specialised skills, like fighting or driving).
> 
> i thought of this concept after c2e57 and fell in love, although it took me a bit to figure out what to do with it. this is gonna be a series of scenes from an au where the mighty nein share a similar link. hope yall enjoy this bc theres gonna be more to come!

It's later than Caleb would normally like to be moving, especially in the city, and especially alone. He and Nott had split up for better odds today - he hopes she has had better luck than him, having taken a winding detour through the streets to lose the suspicious eye of some Crownsguards who'd been a bit too keen for his liking. He has his bounty of three whole gold coins, but has lost his hunting ground in this city. They'll have to move on sooner than anticipated.

They've been wandering south, for lack of any other direction. South brings warmer weather, larger cities, and richer folk, but it also brings the wary hope of allies, and that's something Caleb is still thinking through.

A bark of laughter from a nearby alley has him stumbling over his feet, just for a second, but enough for the scuffling sound to make him noticeable. He pointedly doesn't look down the mouth of the alley as he walks by, but a loud voice tells him it's too late for that.

“Hey! Hey, c'mere! You there!” Loud echoing footsteps, more than one person, either larger or stronger than Caleb or enthusiastic enough to make up the difference. Caleb curses under his breath.

“Nott, I could really use your skills in stealth right now,” he mutters urgently. They're all still learning how to properly harness this strange new connection, but as the only two members of the Nein who have met in person, he and Nott have been making large strides in figuring it out. At the very least, summoning her should be easy, especially in a moment of peril.

He speeds up his pace, and sure enough, at the next crossroads someone is waiting for him. Just not who he was expecting.

“Are we in trouble?” Mollymauk asks, only looking mildly concerned as he idly twirls one of his swords. Caleb brushes past him and he easily falls into step.

“I have picked up some strays,” Caleb says, equally mild. “And not the adorable fuzzy kind.”

“What a shame,” Molly replies. He stops walking to examine the men rapidly gaining on Caleb, but within a few footfalls he's appeared back at his side. “Definitely not the adorable kind. Two humans, one half-elf, one half-orc. The orc has a sword but I'm not seeing anything fancy on the others, probably daggers and hand crossbows if anything. But with the stench of ale coming off them I wouldn't bet on their accuracy.”

“So you think I can take them?” Caleb pants. The fast pace is keeping him ahead of the gang, barely, but it's winding him at an embarrassing rate. Molly gives a short laugh.

“Oh, _that's_ adorable. No, I think they're drunk and stupid, and that's kind of my specialty.”

Molly spins on a copper and faces the group hunting him, who all lurch to a halt in surprise. “Good evening, gentlemen!” he says in his most cheery, professional voice. “Can I help you on this fine night?”

To anyone else it would appear that Caleb had simply chosen to make a stand, stopped mid-jog and straightened up, his body language and even his accent inexplicably changed. It would be fascinating to see from an outsider's perspective, but all Caleb can see from his sudden spot outside of his own body is Molly and his usual bravado, doing his best to save Caleb from a nasty beating.

It's almost literally the least he could do, but people rarely do even that for Caleb, so he feels he can be forgiven for letting it warm his heart briefly.

The leader, the half-orc who indeed has a rather basic longsword on his belt, blinks and then sneers. “We just wanted to see if you'd hang out,” he says, obviously putting on the hurt in his voice. “But then you started running like you're too good for us, and I don't care for that.”

Molly smiles, almost sadly. “I'm so sorry to hear that,” he says, and presses a hand to his heart. “It's just that… well, frankly, I do think I'm too good for you. I have it on good authority, in fact. So I'll have to pass on the invitation, but hey, no hard feelings, right? Someday you'll get to my level, if you try really hard!”

The half-orc is stepping forward before the last patronising words leave Molly's mouth, not even bothering to draw his sword, and Caleb is thrust back into his own body right as the fist comes flying at his face.

“Unglaublich,” he has time to complain before he is knocked straight into the dirt of the street.

At least he doesn't have long to consider how annoyed he should be at Molly cutting and running right as the violence starts. He pushes himself up on shaking arms, and then he is once more beside himself, this time squatting in the dirt next to Beau as she flips herself over and sweeps a leg under the human approaching her. He hits the ground as quickly as Caleb did, but bounces back noticeably quicker, and with a scowl to boot.

“Hey, I was hoping for a warm up before my training tonight,” Beau says. She flashes a sardonic grin at Caleb. “Thanks for the easy mode.”

“Who the fuck are you callin’ easy?” the half-orc snarls. Beau's grin widens.

“I mean, with a face like that, you gotta keep your options open, I guess,” she replies, and rolls to her feet a second before the sword is buried in the dirt where she was lying.

True to her word, the fight passes quickly. The orc's sword is hard to maneuver around his friends, and Beau keeps them all in tight quarters until she can knock each one out, with Caleb occasionally calling out warnings when one of them slips past her guard. Within minutes the half-orc is the only one left standing, and his anger has worked itself into a full on rage, although thankfully not a Rage, as far as Caleb can tell. Beau wipes a streak of blood from a cut on her cheek - a lucky hit from a dagger, and Caleb is definitely going to feel it tomorrow - and shrugs, holding out her arms.

“So, you gonna drop the sword so we can dance, big guy?” she says. The half-orc grins.

“I think I'll dance just fine with it, thanks,” he says, and advances with a calculated slowness. It's to his advantage, having seen Beau use the quick moves and agility of her previous opponents against them, but unfortunately for him, all it does is give Caleb time to think about how he'd very much appreciate someone in particular to come help him at this very moment.

The half-orc swings his sword, Beau just barely makes it beyond the range of the weapon before diving back in and grabbing his wrist--

\--and all Yasha has to do is flex her fingers, twice as large as the half-orc’s without question, to make him drop the sword and leave him gasping. She catches it easily and brings it to his throat, backing him against the wall of the nearest building and pressing until it hits skin.

“I think you should go,” she says, and he nods frantically. “I also think you should start taking ‘no’ for an answer. Does this seem reasonable to you?”

The half-orc starts to nod, then thinks better of it and says through gritted teeth, “Yes.”

“Oh shit, that's hot,” Beau murmurs from beside Caleb.

“You're drooling, dear,” Molly replies from Caleb's other side.

“Hey, fuck you, Molly.”

“Fuck you too!”

“Can you do all this fucking in a more private place?” Caleb asks mildly. Beau flips him off before vanishing, while Molly gives a slightly less malicious wave of his fingers before doing the same. Caleb barely notices them winking out of his field of vision, mostly preoccupied with what the half-orc is seeing right now. A scrawny, dirty human, standing with the stance and power of someone well above his own height and weight, holding that longsword with a strength obviously beyond him. Not for the first time, Caleb wishes he could see these things as everyone else did - it could prove aspirational, in a way.

Yasha drops the sword and the half-orc disappears into the night, not even pausing to check on his compatriots. “Did you want this?” she asks Caleb, holding out the sword.

“No, thank you,” he says politely. She gently places it next to the burlier of the humans unconscious on the ground.

“It's not a very good sword anyway,” she says. “Are you alright?”

In a dizzying moment, he is back in his own body while Yasha hovers nearby, their positions switched while their view on each other remains the same. Caleb shakes off the nausea of the unnatural not-magic and takes a quick stock of his body. “Ja, uh, just some cuts and bruises. Thank you, for your help. This could have ended rather badly for me, I think.”

“Thank you for calling me,” she says, and it sounds so sincere that Caleb flushes despite himself. “I'll stay with you, until you reach your home. Just in case.”

It's been a very long time indeed since he'd had anyone to rely on, people who would come to his aid if he asked for help. As he falls into step with Yasha, he feels the flickering presence of Beau and Molly at his back, with the warm knowledge that Nott is waiting for him, and thinks that they should pick up the pace to Zadash. After all, their allies are waiting for them there.


End file.
